The EFSA European Species Championship 2022 was held Wednesday 26^th May to Saturday 28^th May 2022 from Olafsvik in West Iceland with 64 anglers: 2 ladies, 18 seniors and 44 ordinary/annual/life members. The anglers came from 10 Sections: Belgium (2), England (19), Germany (1), Gibraltar (8), Iceland (9), Ireland (3), Portugal (4), Scotland (11), South Africa (4), and Wales (3).

The fishing. The Championship was a Species Championship targeting unlimited number of Cod and Coalfish. All fish had to be killed by bleeding according to Icelandic law and no fish was released. Each angler was provided with a bucket for his fish. The skipper most often blead the fish, the Crew measured, and the Fish captain wrote down on the Scorecard. After that all fish was put into the common box. If an angler got a record fish or if it was his personal record, it was tagged and put on top of the common box due for landing for measuring.

A total of 6390 fish were caught that gave points, 4141 Cod and 2249 Coalfish:

Fish 35-55 cm 56-75 cm 76-100 cm >101 cm Total

Cod 1322 1841 887 91 4141

Coalfish 1673 452 40 86 2249

Total 2995 2293 927 175 6390

The point system. Only Cod and Coalfish counted for points. Cod and Coalfish 35-55 cm gave 1 points, Cod and Coalfish 56-75 cm 4 points, Cod and Coalfish 76-100 cm 15 points, and Cod and Coalfish 101 cm or longer 50 points.

The boats. In the Championship 17 small size fibre plastic fishing boats were used for 3 to 5 anglers on each boat with professional skippers. Most of the skippers spoke English. The boats went out from Olafsvik in a morning session but because of lack of boats three boats had to go out also in an afternoon session. On Wednesday 26^th May many anglers went out with practice boats in 4 hours morning or afternoon sessions.

Results. The Championship was fished to the General Rules for EFSA Species Championships.

Calculation of the winner of the Championship. The winner of the Championship was the boat winner for both days who got 100% score on his/her boat. Other anglers had their boat scores expressed as a percentage of the boat winner’s score. Because of ties (6 anglers with 200% boat scores) the angler with 200% boat score and the most fishing point won the Species Championship.

EFSA European Champion 2022 was Scott Gibson, Scotland with 200% boat score and 962 fishing points. In the second place was Sævar Guðmundsson, Iceland with 200% boat score and 798 fishing points and in the third place was Francois Beukes, South Africa with 200% boat score and 743 fishing points.

In the Championship there were 11 A- and B National Teams, 2 from England, Iceland, and Scotland and one from Gibraltar, Ireland, Portugal, South Africa, and Wales. Scotland-A was in the first place with 710,68% score, Gibraltar in the second place with 691,46% score and South Africa in the third place with 686,54% score.

The number of 2-man teams was 32 and the number of 4-man teams was 17. The winners of 2-man teams were Mark Robertson and Joe Murphy, Scotland with 379,79% score. The winners of 4-man teams were Warren Doyle and Shay McDonnell, Ireland, Charles Lara, Portugal and Skarphéðinn Ásbjörnsson, Iceland with 682,13% score.

The longest Cod caught was 134 cm, angler Skarphéðinn Ásbjörnsson, Iceland and the longest Coalfish was 124 cm, angler Matt Osborne, England.

A Protest Committee of five was appointed but no protest was recorded during the Championship.

The Awards and Gala-dinner. The Prize giving ceremony and the Gala-dinner was held at the Klif Community House in Olafsvik on Saturday 28^th May. The total number of prizes awarded was 62; for the first three places in the Individual, for the Lady class (1 place), for Life member and Senior (1, 2 and 3 place), the Two man team and Four man team (1, 2 and 3 place), for the National team of five (1, 2 and 3 place), the Executive team of four (1, 2 and 3 place), longest Cod and the longest Coalfish and for the three best skippers.

EFSA Iceland likes to thank everybody that made this Championship become a reality: the anglers, the Stewards, the Organizing Committee, the members of EFSA HQ, the skippers, the municipality, and the local people of Olafsvik.